Sabaj DA3

Founded in Shenzen in 2016, Sabaj is a Chinese company that manufactures affordable amplifiers and DACs.

Unboxing Experience


The DA3 features fairly simple and plain packaging. On the front there is the company logo, model name, and Hi-Res logo. On the back you have some contact information and that’s about it.

On the inside it is not much different, you just have the DA3 and the cable.

Simple and straightforward.




Design & Build Quality

The DA3 is constructed of aluminum and has a foam pad on the bottom side. This pad acts as a non-slip surface and allows the DA3 to grip to the surface it is placed on. The overall body slightly tapers down. When looked from profile, you can see it is a very slight upside-down trapezoid. However, when you look at it from a bird-eye perspective, you can also notice that it it also tailors towards the bottom.

The general design is quite minimalist and there isn’t a whole lot going on. The busiest part is the top side. On the upper top side of the DA3 there is a “Sabaj” print. This print isn’t very clean, there is a fade around the letters, which makes it look a bit funny. This “glow” is also present on the “DA3 Audio DAC” print on the bottom-right corner. On the lower part of the top side there is a small OLED screen, and right below it there are three buttons. The left/right buttons are -/+ volume buttons or menu down/up, while the one in the middle changes the display mode (menu).

The first menu will display the sample rate and the volume. On the second menu you can switch between BAL (2.5mm) or UNBAL (3.5mm). On the third menu there are three filters you can choose from: Fast Rolloff, Slow Rolloff, Minimum Phase. And, on the fourth menu you can choose if you want a timer that will turn off the display (5, 10, 15, or 20 seconds), or you can turn off the timer entirely.

And that’s about it.





Technical Details

The DA3 houses two ESS SABRE 9018Q2C DAC/Amp chips.

Dynamic range
125dB
THD
0.0004%
SNR
118dB
Bit depth
16bit, 24bit, 32bit, 1bit
Sampling rate
44.1kHz, 48kHz, 88.2kHz, 96kHz, 176.4kHz, 192kHz, 352.8kHz, 384kHz, 705.6kHz, 768kHz DSD64, DSD128, DSD256, DSD512
Consumption power
0.8W
Output power
Balanced: 32Ohm 111mW, 64Ohm 111mW, 300Ohm 52mW
Output power
Unbalanced: 32Ohm 56mW, 64Ohm 43mW, 300Ohm 13mW
Impedance range
16~300Ohm

Performance​

The overall performance was quite good. It had no issues driving power hungry headphones like the planar-magnetic HifiMan Deva or the Dekoni Audio Blue, but there also was no noise present in more sensitive headphones (iBasso SR2) and IEMs. When comparing it to the EarMen Sparrow (which also has a 3.5mm SE and a 2.5mm BAL output), the DA3 seemed slightly thinner in sound — but note that the Sparrow is also slightly more expensive and thus would make up for the price difference.

I am personally shocked that I didn’t need to increase the volume above 25% on all of my headphones and IEMs. It really makes me wonder which headphone or IEM would be pushing this thing to its limits.

It was only later that I realized that not only can you adjust the volume on the DA3, but also on your laptop/PC. I had it on 100% on my laptop, and then I only adjusted the volume on the DA3 — much like you would do when you connect an AMP to a DAC that has volume control (you set the DAC to the max and increase/decrease the volume on the amplifier).

Pairings (% represents the volume value on the DA3)

Dekoni Audio Blue 25%
SIVGA P-II 20%
Sennheiser HD6XX 23%
Hifiman Deva 21%
Jade Audio EA3 10%

2.5mm Jade Audio EA3 6%



Conclusion

I am happy to say that I was pleasantly surprised by DA3’s performance. I did not expect it to have so much headroom in terms of power, and I definitely did not expect to not encounter any noise at all. It is a perfect budget DAC/Amp for desktop use or portable use. One thing to take into consideration is that it is not designed to be used with smartphones. You should also be careful carrying it around due to its “sharp” edges, you want to make sure it does not damage whatever you are carrying it around in.

This is a great $120 DAC/Amp, at least it proved to be from my personal experience.